Norris shows his claws against Verstappen and Sainz and a Leclerc accident takes time away from Alonso

A good fight is coming. Another clash of the titans. Maybe a new opportunity to see another fight in between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen for pole and victory. And maybe, with Carlos Sainz near

Lando Norris the first day of free practice is over F1 2024 Hungarian GP in first position, 0″243 ahead of Verstappen, who is 2nd, and 0″397 ahead of Carlos Sainzwhich is third ahead of a ‘Checo’ Pérez who was able to improve compared to the morning to enter the top 4, 4 tenths aways. Behind, Russell was the best Mercedes again with 5th place. Although no one knows how much people theoretically should be eligible for success can hold back.

Before the Grand Prix, it was expected McLaren, Mercedes and Verstappen is in this Saturday’s fight for pole and for Sunday’s victory. Norris looks ready. Max, too, with a better Friday than in previous races at the wheel of a Red Bull with many new parts to try to counter the great improvement of the last. McLaren and Mercedes GP. And Carlos Sainz looks comfortable too. The question is knowing how fast those at the top have maintained, something that won’t be known until Q2 or Q3 of the classification, when the real fire starts.

In the final races, McLaren, Mercedes and Verstappen improved more at the decisive moment than Ferrari. But this time, Carlos Sainz, who led Free Practice 1, had a car with a modified floor which was brought to the track to reduce the bounce of the car and make it easier to drive. That benefit should be more noticeable at Spa, but on a medium curve track, now without the fast corners where Ferrari suffered so much, the red car should be a contender after a solid Friday .

From there, we will see if the rain will also join the party and if, above all, Mercedes will improve its performance, because the protagonists are wizards in hiding the performance until the important moment.

Alonso, hard day with new pieces

Charles Leclercwho came third in Free Practice 1, was almost left without running after making a made a mistake and hit the wall, damaging the front wing of his Ferrari. That led to a red flag that further hurt Fernando Alonso, who if anything he needed this Friday was to add track time.

The man from Oviedo debuted many new features on his Aston Martin to straighten the course of the green car and for the team to find the right path of development. However, after some Free Practice 1 where the Asturian was not satisfied with the balance of the car, I need Aston Martin to analyze the data collected and use Free Practice 2 to apply changes and try to improve the sensations in the car, which has poor balance, especially in the front.

That red flag took away your time to run those basic tests and you couldn’t apply the changes you wanted, ending the session and the first day of free practice still not happy with the balance of the AMR24.

In addition, his fastest qualifying simulation lap was affected by a yellow flag when he was running his best time. It was not the best day for Alonso, who had to grit his teeth to find solutions in FP3 ahead of a classification where rain could add more excitement to the close battle expected in all positions.